Old into new - Take 4, Defining darks and lights

Old into new --- Take 3, Roughly Sketched In

Old into new ..... take 2

A coat of white gesso rollered over the whole painting gives a nice surface to work on, bumps and all!  

Detail from above showing texture

New from old Experiment .... Phase One

Don't know about you but I sometimes get to a point with a painting when I really don't like it at whatever stage its reached at the time, and I know deep down that I am never EVER going to like it whatever I do! 

Well I got to that stage recently with an acrylic of mine and today I decided to let it "morph" into something else. Of course, it is not going to do anything without a little help from me so this morning I got it started on its journey to find it's different self.

First step is done ............ a coating of binder medium, followed by a lovely squishy session of pressing crumpled tissue paper on to the wet surface. Once it is all nicely dry the next job will be to apply a base coat. Don't know yet what that will be ....... paint, gesso or a mix of the two. Will have a think.

Change of mind!

After a lot more thought I have been continuing to work on this latest abstract. This time I am really pleased with the result, and I'm happier with the new title too.

Arpeggio

(acrylic on canvas, 30 x 24 inches)

Still on my easel!

and still working on it ..... will it ever come right?

On my easel .............

New acrylic on 36" x 24" canvas, begun today ......................

April ..... scuppered!!

Well that's it ............. after 3 days struggle I have given up on this idea!!!! Did not matter what I tried nothing seemed right, and the painting just would not come together.  


I have just finished wheeling the roller and covering it all with gesso.


So once again there is a pristine white canvas, 36" x 48", staring reproachfully at me from my easel !!!!!!!!!!!


Ah me, it's back to the drawing board ............................

April - new painting in transition!

Cannot seem to get this painting going in any sensible direction  ............... so I'm giving up for today!  This is the revision of the revision ..... I'll have another go tomorrow. 

April: new work in progress - early stages

Using rollers, sponges, scrapers and brushes with acrylics, acrylic medium and gesso .................. its fun to experiment!!  

whatever next?

A lovely fresh white canvas has been sat on my easel for a week while I procrastinated over getting started ....................... well, now I have!

I have a whole day tomorrow to devote to this painting ....... but what to do next is the vexing question! Lots of thinking to be done this evening I feel. 

Mad March Sales ............

One way of selling paintings has always appealed to me and may be of interest to others. That is to enter a painting into an auction or exhibition where some or all of the selling price is donated to a particular cause. In such an auction I usually opt to share the price achieved 50-50 with the cause.  As an example, a few years ago I donated paintings to a couple of auctions, held in consecutive years, to raise funds towards the renovation of Oamaru Opera House. Both paintings were well received and each achieved a good price, which was highly satisfactory for all concerned!!

More recently I have regularly donated paintings to the annual fundraising art auction held on behalf of the Port Chalmers Rowing Club, Dunedin. The club is one of the key centres for this popular outdoor sport. This year my painting "Waiting" was included and sold, but sadly did not raise much for either party at $120 ($60 each)!  But I guess that's better than not selling at all - which happened one year! The paintings are displayed at a waterside, the historic Carey's Bay Hotel, prior to the auction which has become a very popular event. Overall the auction boosted the club's funds by approx. $5,000.

Waiting (oil pastel on canvas)

Also in March one of my paintings sold in an Art Exhibition held at St Leonard's School, Dunedin. This was supported by many local artists and, asking only a modest 25% commission on sales, realised a boost to school funds of around $3,000.

Not Fade Away (mixed media on canvas)

Moments of abstraction ..... just love these two abstract artists!

I keep finding myself wishing that I could paint in a freer, less literal way, and I know that I have written about this before!  But it is well over a year since I tried painting some 12" x 12" abstracts on canvas and probably even longer since my other attempts at abstraction.

 

But today I found myself idling away the time whilst the 'floor man' re-laid our kitchen flooring (which had come unstuck! ......... but that is another story), so I began searching the web for  information on abstract painters and paintings. Of course, there are thousands of articles and videos to choose from but following two artists just seemed to take my breath away!!!

Zaman Jassim is a Saudi-Arabian artist and photographer who can be seen in the following video creating an art work. He is just amazing! The finished painting titled 'Memory of Places' can be seen here.

Artist Zaman Jassim - creating 'Memory of Places' (You Tube video)

And Isabelle Zacher-Finet is another fine artist who is enthralling to watch at work. I defy anyone not to be impressed!

Isabelle Zacher-Finet creates 'Melodioso II' (You Tube video)

Wonderful stuff!!

Searching new horizons .........

I am feeling strangely at odds with my paintings at the moment. This is not a sudden thing because, now that I stop to think about it, I have been a bit 'lost' for quite a while!

I feel that I want to branch out and experiment, that I should 'move on' from representational renderings to something a bit more original and expressive. Although I don't think my paintings are exactly 'photographic', to my mind they don't show much imagination or originality.

Imagination and original ideas do not come easily and I often wonder if such things are innate or if one can cultivate them through trial and error! Two books that fill me with hope for better things, if I can only keep on trying, are:

The Creative Artist by Nita Leland and The New Spirit of Watercolor by Mike Ward and I find both wonderful sources of information and inspiration, and surely as relevant today as they were 20 years ago. The first version of Nita's book came into print in 1990, and she launched a further book The New Creative Artist in 2006 (this one I have yet to get hold of).

Both Nita's and Mike's books (which I have written about on this blog before) are filled with ideas and advice, and are illustrated with examples of work by many exciting contemporary artists. However, I have to say that looking at paintings produced by others can not only inspire but can sometimes lead to feelings of despondency!! But I suppose its all about experimentation and, should one fall down, having the courage to pick oneself up and having another try ...........

Some of my problem lies in 'artistic constipation' ..... i.e. I have great difficulty moving out of my rather rule-bound mind-set. By this I mean that I tend to get so caught up in the process of producing a recognisable image that all spontaneity and/or imaginative interpretation tends to gets lost. I must also admit to other artistically stultifying traits such as 'fear of failure' and a certain miserliness with paint and materials!

However, there have been occasions when I have managed to produce something which I felt was a bit 'different' and more creative than usual. So I am really pleased that a recent 'abstract' painting of mine has been selected for the Anderson Park Spring Exhibition in Invercargill, while a more realistic painting 'The Red Shoes' entered at the same time was not selected. The successful painting was originally called 'Hear us, See us' but I have renamed it for this exhibition, and now feel encouraged to try my wings at something new!

'Girls night out' (Mixed Media)

2010 Annual Exhibition of Art
Anderson Park Gallery Inc.
Invercargill, Southland

3rd October - 25th October

March sales

Two of my paintings sold last month after quite a dry spell - one an abstract, the other impressionistic in style. "Rhythms" sold at The Art Station, Dunedin and "Shell Seeker" sold at a fund raising auction in aid of the Port Chalmers Rowing Club.

'Rhythms'
12 x 12 ins
Acrylic on canvas

'Shell Seeker'
12 x 8 ins
Pastel

rusty paint brushes!

In a recent comment artist friend, Philip Edson, wondered whether my paintbrushes were going rusty as it has been so long since I did any artwork ... (rude boy!). Well, it just so happens that I've been de-rusting them this past week .......

flutter

Acrylic collage (12 x 12 ins)

Abstract paintings - three small entries

New horizons
(Acrylic)

Fragment
(Acrylic)

On reflection
(Acrylic)

I have been fiddling about trying to get some entries together for the Locations Open Art Awards 2007, Queenstown, and have 'tidied up' three 12 x 12 canvases started earlier this year. I have done very little in the way of art lately and my newest piece has been entered into the City of Dunedin Art Awards 2007 (I am waiting to hear whether or not it has been selected).

As Queenstown is over 3 hours drive away I decided that this year I would not take and collect works in person but send them via courier. However, using a courier service for large paintings can be a bit costly (e.g. sending two 36" x 24" canvases to Auckland recently cost $112 return) so I decided that smaller canvases were the sensible way to go, particularly while sales are so few and far between. Wish me luck!

Ed Labadie - Creating from Chaos

Perhaps I need to write a little something about what we were actually doing at Ed Labadie's abstract workshop. Ed paints mostly in watercolour or oils and his process for creating abstracts is the same for both mediums. He calls this process 'CREATING FROM CHAOS' - follow this link for the demonstration DVD and/or a booklet about his method available for purchase.

Basically this involves dropping colours randomly onto a wet ground, then allowing them to mix and mingle by tilting the support this way and that. When this initial layer is dry there follows a stage of contemplation, - viewing the painting from all angles and allowing it to 'speak' to you. How does it make you feel? What can you see? What are the important shape? Once you have made some decisions it's time to start developing different areas of the painting, eliminating distractions and accentuating your important elements. This is done with overpainting and glazing.

Sound simple? Well, think again! Even the initial stage is difficult .... its not easy to mingle wet colours without creating mud! Paint has to be the right consistency, the support must be receptive to this way of working, not to mention the difficulties of keeping ones application of colour and brushstrokes completely 'random'.

Ed was demonstrating with watercolour on paper but around half the class were working in acrylics. I attempted something on 3 different types of support. The first was a small Reeves 'oil painting board' (9" x 12") - the paint would not flow around very well unless extremely diluted and the area of the painting was far too small. Next someone in the class offered me a sheet from her 'canvas pad for oils or acrylics' .... this was a big improvement over the oil board and is what I used for 'Girl at the Bar'.

Mulling things over that first evening I decided that perhaps acrylics might work well on watercolour paper and this is what I used on the second day for 'Night and Day'. However, I found it impossible to get that richness of hue found with watercolour because the paint had to be diluted a great deal for it to flow across the paper, but possibly this was due to my technique. Those artists using watercolour got deeper hues but were a little disturbed at the amount of paint that they used up! Interestingly enough, my colours came out far richer on the sheet of oil paper than on either the board or the Bockingford paper - so I will have to try out other supports and mixes before I can really decide what gives the best results with acrylics. But I definitely think that watercolour on heavy paper has the edge.

Ed Labadie is a good tutor - full of good humour, anecdotes and willing to share all his 'tips and tricks'. He was also quick to point out that his method for painting abstracts has taken him about 20 years to develop ... so it is hardly surprising that we were unable to master it in just two days!

Abstract Workshop - Day 2

Night and Day (Acrylic on Bockingford Paper 300 gsm)

Day 2 of the workshop did not go well! I started this painting immediately on arrival and worked at it all day .... and found it terribly hard work!

Many of the artists attending the workshop started several paintings over the two days .... some as many as eight, but only a few got anything to a 'finished' stage. I felt like throwing in the towel more than once but was determined not to give in and persevered with different techniques and ideas, even resorting to cutting off some of the edges to try and to improve it.

I am surprised at how good it looks in the photograph ..... so it may get a stay of execution!

Abstract Workshop - Day 1

And now something completely different to my usual! .... done today at the workshop with Ed Labadie. I have cropped this a little to improve the balance of the composition, but I am quite pleased with it on the whole. Pity it was done in a class - this means it will not be possible to enter it into the majority of exhibitions.

Girl at the bar (Acrylic)